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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

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Original poster

Cousin's daughter has ended up with the box room at her university shared house

86 replies

mrsjavierbardem · 15/09/2014 12:01

She's paying the same rent and her mates won't budge on anything: Won't rotate the room, won't pay more.

She did agree to have the room a year ago - but now sees that it is almost impossibly small and feels she should at the very least, pay less rent.

I guess that's that but I do think they are being vile to her and so aggressive in their refusal to discuss it at all.. Oh well you see people's true colours over this kind of thing, a life lesson for sure.

OP posts:

WiseGuysHighRise · 15/09/2014 13:01

I think, as everyone has already worked out what they'll be paying it would be unfair at this stage to ask people to change their rental amounts because she has now realised the room is less suitable than she thought.

However there are other non-financial compromises people could come to...she gets more of a say in communal things like TV and has to do less communal things like cleaning? First dibs on the shower of a morning?

FWIW I had a "head tenancy" one year through the uni which meant I paid my rent to the uni and the uni was technically my landlord but I was living in a private house. Those rooms were charged by size.

DefinitleySpeltWrong · 15/09/2014 13:05

If she uses a portable clothes rack to hang her cloths might she be able to keep it on the landing (as long as it doesn't get in the way and she trusts her flatmates not to nick her stuff

Ludways · 15/09/2014 13:32

Can she negotiate less cleaning duties?

Iamblossom · 15/09/2014 13:37

we drew straws at the beginning of every year. I got the box room in the final year. It incorporated part of the landing to allow for a clothing rail and that is the only way it was doable. Bloody annoying as I was the only one with a boyfriend, but fair.

LonnyVonnyWilsonFrickett · 15/09/2014 13:41

gunz it worked like that back in nineteencanteen too .

I had one 'per room' tenancy with a social housing landlord in my time, but the rest were on a joint lease. And the per room situation felt a lot more transient - if you are all liable for each other's rent then you take more of an interest in your flat mates.

Butterpuff · 15/09/2014 13:47

I had the largest room at university so had to pay more. I didn't want it, but others had a stronger opinion on not having it. So I had to pay more though I would have been happy in and paying for the smallest room. No way of making any of it fair.

Gunznroses · 15/09/2014 13:50

LonnyVonny I remember my rent was £32 per week including bills, there was no central heating , it was freezing. Horrible place!

DwellsUndertheSink · 15/09/2014 13:54

I think she should start telling them that she will be looking for another room in another house, as she hadnt realised how miserable she would be living in such a cramped space, and for the same money she could have a nice big room in another house....plus as she is going to be paying a fortune to heat their rooms, she feels she cannot possibly stay and be miserable all year....

Then if they continue to be unfeeling and tight fisted, she should look for other rooms, assuming of course her rental agreement has a get out clause.

MsGee · 15/09/2014 13:57

I think that this is part and parcel of student life. In most student houses there is a small room. Some pay less, some don't. In our house (20 years ago) we drew straws and whoever got the small room just had to suck it up.

The main thing is that she agreed to the room and the rent when they took the lease and now she wants to change that. I can imagine her house mates are pissed off as they will have budgeted for their rent. If she didn't want a small room she should have spoken up before they signed the lease.

littlemslazybones · 15/09/2014 13:58

What a lot of fuss over nothing. It's a room with a bed, a wardrobe and a desk and access to the communal facilities. She had seen the room and committed to share the rent equally.

There is too much fun to be had in the first year of uni to squander it with a lot of bad blood over trivia.

Viviennemary · 15/09/2014 14:00

Well I'm afraid I think that she should either pay less rent or have a larger room. The others are digging their heels in. Well they would do wouldn't they. Because they don't want to pay more or take turns with the smaller room. I don't agree that this is part and parcel of student life. Most people sharing realise that fair play all round is the way to go. Not every person for themselves and hang everyone else. She should speak to the landlord and/or seek new accommodation.

LonnyVonnyWilsonFrickett · 15/09/2014 14:05

Oh yeah gunz I had one place with no herinf and another where it really didn't seem to make any difference at all. Happy days

LonnyVonnyWilsonFrickett · 15/09/2014 14:06

Herinf = heating and possibly the weirdest autocorrect ever.

Original poster

mrsjavierbardem · 15/09/2014 14:06

We had rats in one house.... happy happy days!

OP posts:

Gunznroses · 15/09/2014 14:08

Student's accommodation with no heating AND the student accommodations officers had been round to check it before hand and listed it as suitable

crazymum53 · 15/09/2014 14:10

It depends what facilities are available in the communal rooms really.
I remember when I was a student one girl negotiated a lower rent for a box room it was so small there was only room for a bed and chair and this seemed fair.
She didn't need a desk as she wasn't a student.

EduCated · 15/09/2014 14:12

Had she requested less rent when they first took the room, I'd have completely agreed. However by asking now when they've moved in, the others may well have already budgeted/not be able to pay more. So I think it's a bit unfair to ask at this stage and be pissed off when they say no.

Our student house had different sized rooms, although none I would really describe as a box room, although the smallest was much smaller than the biggest, IYSWIM. We all paid the same amount of rent, although we did draw lots for the rooms out of a crisp packet in the pub

Snowfedup · 15/09/2014 14:44

It would be different if she hadnt seen the room but she did and agreed so I can understand her flatmates being annoyed at her change of mind !

FWIW i agreed to share with a close friend and 2 of her previous flatmates. I couldn't get to see the flat they chose (was in another country at the time) but was happy to trust them.

I unexpectedly returned to uni earlier than the rest and so was the first to receive the key to the flat, i arrived to find that you had to go through one of the bedrooms to get to the kitchen and one bedroom had 2 beds and was also the living room, leaving only 1 decent bedroom - guess which i unpacked in ?

When the rest arrived it caused a great row as they had obviously expected me to have the kitchen / bedroom. There was also great talk about bedroom rotation but i refused.

Eventually the landlord agreed to put up a stud wall so harmony returned and although we didnt share together the following year i have remained friends with my original close friend.

Its all a learning experience and hopefully once term starts she will be to busy drunk to care :)

Clarabell33 · 15/09/2014 14:46

As PPs have suggested, can she have some storage elsewhere in the flat, even if that means loss of space in communal areas? If her flatmates are being nasty, can she say that's what she needs to do in order to not have to move out, rather than asking their permission and being turned down?

One flat I lived in had a massive storeroom with nothing in other than the electricity meter and a step ladder. It got totally taken over by the flatmate who had the smallest bedroom - she had almost all her clothes storage in there, so her bedroom (which was actually smaller than the storeroom) only had her bed and desk, so she had somewhere comfortable to study, and it didn't affect anyone else. But that was an oddly-shaped flat... She also paid a bit less rent - £15 less than the total rent/4 flatmates, so the rest of us were paying an extra £5 each month than we would have been otherwise. Seemed fair and worked for three years - no one wanted to move room even when we discussed it each year!

I also had friends who decided to make the large living room into a bedroom and use the tiny boxroom as the tv room so none of them had to squeeze into a tiny room. That seemed to work well too, but may not be feasible in a house rather than a flat.

VivaLeBeaver · 15/09/2014 14:50

I've ñever known anyone pay less rent for having the smaller room. Didnt happen when I was at uni. Everyone paid the same.

I don't think she has any moral case. The others thought she was happy with it, she said it was ok. Why should they now be worse off because she's changed her mind? Finances are tight for students.

MillyMollyMama · 15/09/2014 15:35

It is fairly normal these days for students who are friends with each other to adjust the rent downwards slightly for the smallest room. DD shared two houses with 5 others then 2 others and the rent was adjusted by agreement on both occasions. In the larger flat they drew straws for the rooms and in the smaller flat they just agreed who had what room. If students are friends, and reasonable, well brought up people, this is what they do. I think the real problem here is that these other students are not really her friends. She trusted them but she is being treated less favourably.

Leaving could be a real problem now because where will she find another room? Who else is she friendly with? Obviously she will learn from this and not be so accommodating in future. It is not normal to accept what is dished out to you and students DO have to have a desk in the room these days. All stories of past hardships are a bit wide of the mark. When it comes to paying bills the OP's Cousin's daughter should pay a lesser amount based on the size of her room when compared to the others, and pay no more than is reasonable. At least that will make her feel better and she must stick to her guns!

stonecircle · 15/09/2014 15:35

Poor girl - she was probably carried along with the excitement of new accommodation and made the offer to have the box room without thinking it through properly.

Wasn't usual in my day to vary rent according to room size though and I can see why her flatmates would be annoyed at what is effectively her going back on the agreement.

But as others have said, box rooms can be cosy (cosier than a large junk-filled attic in an unheated house in Scotland which I spent a year in!). How about getting her something nice for her room to try and make it a bit more special (nice bedding/cushions/pictures etc?)

mistlethrush · 15/09/2014 15:40

My favourite room in shared houses was the smallest in the house - and I had had the biggest the year before too. You do need to be organised but it can work well.

ajandjjmum · 15/09/2014 15:44

I always felt sorry for whoever had DS's uni room after him. The furniture and state of the place was disgusting, so we decorated, and bought it bedroom furniture from home, sofa, rug, curtains. It wasn't the size, it was just filthy.

It looked fine when we'd finished, but obviously he took all the stuff back when he left - leaving the manky old furniture that was previously installed.

Can your niece fit a desk in there? - if not, that surely would have to be accommodated in the living room.

SunbathingCat · 15/09/2014 15:51

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

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